AmiKit 1.5.0, the high-end Amiga on your PC, has been released. Main new features include a fresh new look, faster and more stable engine, support of new 24bit themes, improved Windows installer, choice of two automatic installers for Linux platforms and much more. For AmiKit to work, you do need Amiga ROMs and the AmigaOS, which can be obtained via AmigaForever, for instance.

AmiKit is a collection of Amiga programs and enhancements that are designed to "layer over" a base install of Amiga OS and add all kinds of nice functionality without requiring any mucking about with configuration files and stuff.

Both AmiKit and Amiga Forever use the same emulation engine called WinUAE.

The main difference is that while the Amiga Forever is a commercial product that includes the legal ROM and system files and provides you with default (and very basic) AmigaOS environment, the AmiKit is freeware and doesn't include the ROM and system files. However it includes more than 300 pre-configured programs that are not part of the default AmigaOS installation - which turn the default OS into the ultimate environment.

AmiKit can be considered as an add-on for Amiga Forever but that would be inaccurate. AmiKit installs into its own separated folder and during the installation it copies the the ROM and system files from Amiga Forever to AmiKit. Since this point the AmiKit is complete and standalone application.